1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to batting training devices, and more particularly to batting tees and weighted bats.
2. Description of Related Art
It has been said that one of the most difficult feats in all of sports is hitting a pitched ball with a bat. While this statement was made in appreciation of the difficulty faced by professional baseball batters facing professional baseball pitchers, effectively hitting a pitched ball is still a significant challenge at lesser levels of competition.
One challenge faced by both professional and amateur ballplayers is the need to perform offensively several times a game with no continuity between such performances. After each at bat, a batter must wait for at least eight other batters to bat before he or she gets another opportunity to bat. Thus, a batter has a much more difficult time developing an effective rhythm, unlike a basketball player who can redeem a missed shot at with a field goal in mere seconds.
Batters have developed several techniques for dealing with this lack of offensive continuity inherent in the game. A batter is said to be xe2x80x9con-deckxe2x80x9d when next in the order scheduled to bat. Batters who are on-deck typically swing a bat, which may or may not be weighted more heavily than a game bat, so as to warm-up their muscles for their impending at-bat. Weighted bats are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,816 to Bratt, and devices for weighting bats, such as weighted rings, are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,883 to Hamilton. Unfortunately, simply warming up the muscles does nothing for the batter""s hand-eye coordination.
Training exercises that warm-up both the muscles and the batter""s hand-eye coordination involve swinging at a target. The target can be moving or stationary. Batting practice, where a batter has a chance to hit a series of pitches in continuity is ideal before a game, but impractical during a game except in professional facilities having batting cages immediately adjacent to the baseball diamond.
Hitting a ball off of a tee is an exercise more readily available to the amateur ballplayer, but tees are not generally provided as a permanent part of a ball field. Batting tees are typically portable and usually comprise an upright post attached to a supporting base shaped like home plate. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,691 to Lefebvre et al. While such tees are portable, they are not designed to fit the needs of the amateur ballplayer, as such tees are not configured to easily fit within equipment bags designed for baseball and softball (such as disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,995 to Speck), which are sometimes denoted as xe2x80x9cbat bagsxe2x80x9d.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide a portable batting tee configured to fit within a bat bag.
It is further desired to provide a portable batting tee capable of adopting a configuration resembling a game bat.
It is still further desired to provide a training device for batted ball sports, which can adopt a weighted bat configuration and a portable batting tee configuration.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Accordingly, the invention provides a multifunction training device for batted ball sports, wherein said device is adapted to selectively convert from a bat configuration to a batting tee configuration. The device in its bat configuration is suitable for storing in a bat bag, and is preferably suitable for swinging as a bat.